


Don't want to file THIS under 'shit happens'

by jesseofthenorth



Category: Shelter (2007)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-01
Updated: 2013-06-01
Packaged: 2017-12-13 15:03:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/825665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesseofthenorth/pseuds/jesseofthenorth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sean was standing in the vegetable aisle when he got the call<br/>" He was brought in by paramedics about 20 minutes ago"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't want to file THIS under 'shit happens'

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [hc-bingo]() May Small Fandom Challenge. My prompt was accidents

Sean was standing in the vegetable aisle when he got the call. Hands full of jicama and kohlrabi, he almost didn't answer. But there was a whisper in the back of his mind, that little voice he had learned not to ignore, that told him to answer his phone.

" Hello?" 

“Hi. This is Eve at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. We are trying to reach …. Shaun?”

“This is Shaun.” he answered and felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, anticipating how bad the next words he heard might be.

“Oh thank goodness! We have a very confused young man named Zach here. He was brought in by paramedics about 20 minutes ago. He has no ID and the only thing he could tell us was your name and this phone number. Could you come-”

He didn't let her finish before he yelled “YES!” and ran for his truck.

He didn't remember much of the drive. He couldn't tell you what the traffic was like or how long it took or even if the sun was shining, but for years to come Shaun could recall in vivid detail every horrible scenario that played out in his mind while he drove. The cold lump in the bottom of his stomach shifting and making him want to throw up as tried to find parking as fast as he could while trying to talk himself into believing it wasn't that bad. 

The icy sensation didn't leave even after he parked and tried to make sense of where he was supposed to go while fighting his way through the need to see for himself what state Zach was in. Shaun wasn’t sure what the woman on the phone had said, if anything, after she asked if he could come. He didn't know if it would have helped.

Finally he was standing in front of a nurses station, breathless and terrified.

“Hi. I'm here for Zach?” turned out to be the magic words as the nurse hurriedly led him down a long corridor where a few short minutes later Shaun found his boy struggling to sit up on a gurney, despite the fact that he was in no shape to do it. A harried looking young woman in a white coat looked up at him from where she was trying to get Zach to stay put. 

“Please be Shaun.” she said and Shaun really had to wonder what had been going on before he got here.

“Shaun! Oh my god Shaun!” Zach looked confused and a little terrified.

“Hey man. What's going on?” Shaun asked trying to keep his voice calm, and moved into the room closer to where he really needed to be.

Zach grabbed at his arm and hauled him in, pushing his face into Shaun's chest. 

“I hit me head.” he mumbled into Shaun's t-shirt.

That much was clear from the fucking gash over his eyebrow and the dried blood on his face.

Shaun looked at the – intern?- for clarification, while wrapping an arm carefully around one of Zach's shoulders to steady him.

“Skateboarding fall according to the paramedics. No helmet” she said sternly making her opinion of _that_ perfectly clear.

Shaun had an opinion about it too. He could clarify that opinion to Zach later when he was sure Zach was okay. If Zach was going to be okay. He felt the panic from the drive over rise up again. He turned to ask about how serious it was.

“We're sending him up for an MRI. It would be helpful if you could keep him calm until then.”

Shaun didn't even have to think before he answered “Of course.”

 

He rubbed Zach's back one handed while he filled out forms. Glad for the paper work they both routinely carried in their wallets that proved who they were to each other and Cody.

Shit. Cody! 

He called Sari, the mother of Cody's best friend, when Zach was in imaging. He filled her in and thanked her when she offered to pick Cody up from school and keep him overnight. Shaun knew Cody would be safe and happy there. It would give Shaun the chance he needed to find out how bad this really was.

“Don't worry about Cody, Shaun. I can keep him distracted without giving him anything to be worried about. No point in that until you know if there _is_ something to worry over.”

Shaun agreed with her reasoning, and kept repeating it to himself while he waited for Zach to come back from his MRI. It didn't help much, but he kept doing it, hoping the idea would take root. 

Mostly he waited.

It took a couple of hours. An uneasy couple of hours, that were finally relieved by the words “He's mostly okay. Take him home and make sure he doesn't do much for the next couple of days.”

 

Shaun took him home. 

He drove carefully, and moved slowly when helping Zach out of the truck and into the house. The relief he felt was like a living thing wanting out to run wild. 

Yes he was pissed that Zach was hurt, and annoyed didn't even begin to cover how Shaun felt about the thought of Zach's head connecting with pavement. But that all paled in the face of Shaun's gratitude that Zach was okay. For tonight he was going to wrap himself around Zach and barely sleep so he could keep an eye on him. Tomorrow he would go get Cody and keep on being grateful.

Later, they were going to have a long guilt inducing conversation about skull fractures and scaring the shit out of people who loved you.

Tonight. Shaun was going to be grateful.


End file.
